Faculty

Mario Cortes

Associate ProfessorChair, Core Professional Program

Mr. Cortes teaches design, building structures, and color theory, and offers seminars in tectonics, construction and building materials. He has taught at Virginia Tech since 1986. He has served as a jurist and guest lecturer at the University of Virginia and The Alexandria Consortium. His watercolors have been displayed at Hollins University and the Western European Architecture Foundation. In 2005, he was selected as a Gabriel Prize national finalist for his architectural watercolors and sketches. Mr. Cortes serves as a structural consultant for architects throughout Virginia. He collaborated with and supervised students for the Design Build Laboratory - Rammed Earth House. In 2003 he presented a paper on his research “Bridge Between Structures and Design” at the ACSA Central Conference. In the fall of 2004, he wrote the School’s Second Year Competition program as a development project for the Trade Street Arts district in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and subsequently coordinated an exhibit in Winston-Salem of many of the student submissions.